Importance of the Tutor in Electra

Importance of the Tutor in Electra

When delving into a novel, drama or other character-based text, analysts often focus their search around the supposed "major characters" who seem to most directly affect the work. In considering Electra, however, just as valuable as Orestes, Clytemnestra or Electra herself is a somewhat minor character, the Tutor. This attendant of Orestes emerges only three times and is on stage for less than twenty percent of the spoken lines, yet his role in driving the plot is as great as any. If Aristotle, one of the true masters of ancient thought, is correct in saying "The Plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy," then the Tutor can truly be considered one of the most significant characters in the entire drama.

The relationship between the Tutor and Aristotle's conception of tragedy can be carried further, for in his Poetics Aristotle claims, "Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is complete and whole...A whole that has a beginning, a middle, and an end." If this is believed, the Tutor's appearances become an even better match for the tragic form. His three presentations on stage are quite auspicious numerically, and geometrically they form a nearly perfect spread from beginning to middle to end. With each of these appearances the Tutor sets in motion some critical aspect of the plot, thus making himself an agent of another of Aristotle's notions: "But most important of all is the structure of the incidents. For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action." The Tutor truly drives the action of this play, functioning as a glue to hold the plot together and as a catalyst to keep it moving forward.

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...alls him "the only one I found / Remaining loyal at our father's murder"(1351-1352). Such an idea brings the true depth of the Tutor into the open: he is perhaps the most steadfast character in the entire drama, the one who committed himself to Orestes' cause not out of familial obligation but simply out of loyalty. The Tutor sets this play in motion, propels it in the middle and then continues it towards its end. Such a purposeful nature contrasts greatly with Electra's, and without the Tutor's influence this may have simply been a fifteen hundred line saga of her personal woes. Though traditional analysis makes the Tutor's role seem secondary, it is deceptively important, yet another deception that is quite appropriate for such an individual.

Works Cited:

Euripides. Electra. Trans. Philip Vellacott. Medea and Other Plays. Baltimore: Penguin Classics, 1963.